But in the November 2006 issue of Focus, the newsletter of the MAA, mathematician Alice Silverberg, writes a very negative essay about the show, even though she’s a consultant for it. Three excerpts:

If you’re watching Numb3rs because you think you’re learning some mathematics, or because you think you’re watching mathematics as it’s actually used in the real world, be warned: you’re not. Getting the math right and getting it to fit with the plot are not priorities of the Numb3rs team.…[Producer] Cheryl [Heuton] was very generous with her time… in which she mostly explained why talking with mathematicians would be a waste of their time.…I have concerns about the violence, the depiction of women, and the pretense that the math is accurate….

In between these excerpts, Silverberg decries the “excessive violence” of the show — she must not watch much television — and the depiction of women. She claims that women on the show are portrayed only as love interests and sex objects.

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About me

I am starting my 21st year as a math teacher at Weston High School (the only public high school in Weston, MA, though sometimes it seems more like a private school). This is my 44th year as a teacher altogether. I also teach at Harvard’s Crimson Summer Academy each summer (this was the 15th!), and for 21 years I taught at the Saturday Course in Milton, MA. Until recently I served on the board of the Dorchester Historical Society.

I read, cook, and build my model railroad when I can. For some reason I’m left with less free time than would be ideal, but somehow I also manage to devote time to my wife, Barbara, and to our excessive number of cats.